The Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) is a mainline Protestant Lutheran church headquartered in Chicago, Illinois. The ELCA was officially formed on January 1, 1988, by the merging of three Lutheran church bodies. , it has approximately 3.04 million baptized members in 8,724 congregations.
In 2015, Pew Research estimated that 1.4 percent of the U.S. population self-identifies with the ELCA. It is the seventh-largest Christian denomination by reported membership, and the largest Lutheran denomination in the United States. The next two largest Lutheran denominations are the Lutheran Church–Missouri Synod (LCMS) (with over 1.8 million baptized members) and the Wisconsin Evangelical Lutheran Synod (WELS) (with approximately 340,000 members). There are also many smaller Lutheran church bodies in the United States, some of which were formed by dissidents to the major 1988 merger.
The ELCA belongs to the World Council of Churches, the National Council of Churches of Christ in the USA, and the Lutheran World Federation. The ELCA is in full communion with the Episcopal Church, Moravian Church, Presbyterian Church (USA), Reformed Church in America, United Church of Christ, and the United Methodist Church.
History
Historically, various Lutheran church bodies in the United States had been formed resulting from immigration waves from various countries. For instance, members of the Lutheran Church in America (LCA) (centered in New York City, New York, and Philadelphia, Pennsylvania) were largely descendants of immigrants in the colonial and mid-19th century period. The American Lutheran Church (ALC), with headquarters in Minneapolis, Minnesota, was influenced by descendants of the waves of Scandinavian and German immigration to the Midwest in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The Association of Evangelical Lutheran Churches (AELC) (which had earlier withdrawn from the LCMS after 1975), was made up of many congregations throughout the lower Midwest. Over time, the national or ethnic identification by certain church associations lessened as descendants became more assimilated into general American society. Members across organizations began to have more in common as areas of the country urbanized and more people made their livings in suburbs and cities, rather than in rural farming areas. The ALC and LCA were already the result of earlier mergers among associated congregations once related to ethnic immigrant groups.
In 1970, a survey by Strommen et al. found that 79 percent of Lutheran Church in America clergy, 62 percent of American Lutheran Church clergy, and 58 percent of Lutheran Church Missouri Synod clergy surveyed agreed that "a merger of all Lutheran groups in the United States into one organization is desirable". A group of congregations left the LCMS after 1975 as it became dominated by theological and social conservatives; they formed the Association of Evangelical Lutheran Churches (AELC).
Following several years of discussions, the LCA, ALC, and AELC formally agreed in 1982 to unite. Implementing this agreement took longer: the new Evangelical Lutheran Church of America (ELCA) was effective on January 1, 1988, creating the largest Lutheran church body in the United States. The ALC and LCA had been formed by previous mergers.
American Lutheran Church
In 1960, The American Lutheran Church had been formed as a merger of the earlier ALC of 1930, largely members of German heritage; the United Evangelical Lutheran Church (UELC), with members of Danish background; and the Evangelical Lutheran Church (ELC), made up of members of Norwegian background. The Lutheran Free Church (LFC) joined three years later in 1963.
The ALC brought approximately 2.25 million members into the new ELCA. It was the most theologically conservative of the forming bodies, having a heritage of Old Lutheran theology. It had been in fellowship for a decade with the Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod and officially held to biblical inerrancy in its constitution. It seldom enforced that stance by means of heresy trials or other doctrinal discipline. Its geographic center was in the Upper Midwest, especially Minnesota. Its headquarters and publisher (Augsburg Publishing House) were based on South Fifth Street in Minneapolis and one of its several seminaries was located in neighboring St. Paul. Its denominational magazine was The Lutheran Standard, published in Minneapolis. Some congregations in the ALC chose not to join the 1988 merger and instead formed the American Association of Lutheran Churches.